Blow The Scene

Enjoy a fresh set of exclusive photos as UK grind legends Napalm Death recently stormed through Philly’s Union Transfer venue as part of an ongoing North American tour with heavyweights Voivod, Iron Reagan, Exhumed and a slew of special guests that included Ringworm and Black Crown Initiate on this particular evening.

Openers Black Crown Initiate are supporting a debut full-length on eOne Music, The Wreckage Of Stars, which The Monolith describes saying “..The Pennsylvanian five-piece muster music reminiscent of bands like Opeth and Behemoth, with a gentle interweaving of both progressive elements as well as the more orthodox hints of death metal and black metal. Their debut album The Wreckage Of Stars is a showcase of incredible talent.”

Apart from 2013’s renowned Necrocracy LP, the mighty Exhumed are supporting a recently welcomed re-issue/re-record of 1998’s now-classic debut full-length Gore Metal via Relapse Records. Exhumed have returned to the studio almost two decades following it’s inception to re-record this landmark debut. Vice Magazine attesting, “One of the most influential death metal records ever made. The new recording has the same face-smashing ferocity of the original but with some much-needed sonic depth. It sounds amazing.”

Cleveland’s legendary kings of metallic hardcore Ringworm released their latest album, and debut for Relapse Records, Hammer of the Witch in March of 2014. Blabbermouth explaining, “If you know Ringworm, you know what you’re getting. These guys never let anyone down and “Hammer of the Witch” is one of the heaviest death metal albums that’s hardly death metal at all. Hardcore and thrash belong in this camp, because Ringworm knows better than most how to exploit both at maximum impact.”

Iron Reagan have all but taken the metal and thrash scene by storm over the last two years with a barrage of solid releases starting with the Worse Than Dead LP on A389 Recordings in 2013. And let us not forget the punishing split EP with tour-mates Exhumed released via Tankcrimes. Most recently, Iron Reagan released their Relapse Records debut The Tyranny of Will in the Fall of 2014. This 24 song-wrecking ball of hardcore punk and thrash fury was recorded with guitarist Phil ‘Landphil’ Hall at Blaze of Torment Studios in Richmond, VA and self-produced before it was mixed by Converge‘s Kurt Ballou at his God City Studio. Iron Reagan are set to head down under for their first ever Australian Tour launching April 7th in Wollongong, NSW before wrapping up on April 11th in Melbourne. Fronted by Tony Foresta (Municipal Waste, No Friends) along with Phil Hall (Municipal Waste, Cannabis Corpse), Ryan Parris (ex-Darkest Hour) joined by Mark Bronzino (ANS, Mammoth Grinder, Kicking Spit) on second guitar and Rob Skotis (Hellbear) on bass.

Canada’s influential metal architects, Voivod are bolstering a new and astounding, 16th overall full-length, Target Earth available via Century Media Records. This latest effort has been hailed by fans and critics alike with Spin Magazine affirming, “..French Canadian street-hockey pucks born around the dawn of the ’60s, raised inhaling toxins from the planet’s most enormous aluminum plant in Jonquiére..Target Earth, their new one, deserves to be the album whereon social-media-era tastemakers finally anoint them legacy heroes, in the amusingly eons-behind-the-curve tradition of Swans, Nick Cave, and Voivod’s own early inspiration Killing Joke. Blacky’s back..Snake’s nasally accented repetitions, more robotic than monstrous, manage to consistently communicate shades of emotion — worry, despair, but also a hopeful calm — outside metal’s usual purview.”

UK grindcore legends Napalm Death are still on fire with, Apex Predator – Easy Meat, the band’s 15th studio album, out now on Century Media. The album is already a definite contender for best of 2015. The live show, featuring former Brutal Truth guitarist Erick Burke filling in temporarily for Mitch Harris, was nothing short of monstrous. The pit was nutty, the riffs blazing, all punctuated by a young women who snatched an electronic ticket counter from the ticketing staff and hurled it through the venue’s front windows like brick whilst Napalm Death melted the stage. Undaunted, the show continued as the British pioneers prove to be poignant and timely in 2015 with The Guardian professing, “With much of the metal scene in a permanent state of superficiality, Napalm Death’s righteous fury and utter disregard for routine sonic styles mark the grindcore legends out as one of the few truly subversive bands around. But even by their own standards, Apex Predator – Easy Meat is startling. Thematically centered on the horror of industrialized slave labour in the modern world, the band’s 15th studio album revels in the perversity of such compassionate and humane lyrical ideas being tethered to music that seeks to leave real scars.”

Enjoy a brand new exclusive series of photos by Blow The Scene‘s Senior Staff Photographer Dante Torrieri (Useless Rebel Imaging)